Ruth McDowall in Nigeria

Ohazuma Chima Anthony, thirty-two, recovers at Gwagwalada hospital after the 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, in Abuja, Nigeria.

On Currency today, Alexis Okeowo writes about the emerging arms industry in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, a region that has been plagued with religious violence for the past several years. In 2010, the photographer Ruth McDowall moved from New Zealand to Jos, the region’s capital, to teach photography to at-risk youth. Since then, she has been documenting the rise of the arms industry, as well as the daily conflict that permeates Jos and the surrounding area. McDowall told me about the sizable impact the violence has had on her community: “Many youths have suffered psychologically, with symptoms of P.T.S.D. During my first year in the country, crises would erupt and claim five hundred lives in over three days.”

Above, see a slide show of Ruth McDowall’s photographs from her time in Nigeria.